Our children are sent here to stretch us…awaken us…bring us FURTHER…Regardless of the choices they make or don’t make…
The ensuing reflections developed after I sent our son John an early morning text thanking him for his many invitations to me to go FURTHER...a few accompanied by heel marks…
Rules for our Road Trip/Exploration into FURTHER
1. Let’s first notice and then put aside the DUALISTIC part of our rational minds: with its preference for black or white labels: good/bad, success/failure, forward/backward, pass/fail…
2. Next, instead of looking at our lives in a linear, straight line way, let’s try using a circular looking-glass method…like Alice…
LAUNCH: Let’s leave the familiarity of the shore (what we know) with its solid ground…
…and picture ourselves…on a boat on a river…
Oops, imagine ourselves in the center of a circle and, as we go further from this center, experience that there isn’t any forward or backward, left or right…
We’re simply RIPPLES radiating out from this center…
TWO TALES ABOUT OUR CHILDREN'S CHOICES...
SOWING
In this next image I mused about the positioning of the crow with “the wayside.”. See, the wise crow speaks in some Grateful Dead tunes and some folks feel that those who follow this band – like me - are there…"wayward"...
“Wayside” is not the same as “wayward”…
It's the same story the crow told me
It's the only one he know
Like the morning sun you come
And like the wind you go
--Uncle John's Band
FALLING...Prodigal Sons and Daughters…
…Turning right and wrong and good and bad on its head…
…┴nɹuᴉuƃ ɹᴉƃɥʇ ɐup ʍɹouƃ ɐup ƃoop ɐup qɐp ou ᴉʇs ɥǝɐp…
Father Richard describes the futility of trying to “fix” ourselves:
The genius of Twelve Step programs is that they situate powerlessness and surrender right where they belong—at the beginning. They teach how sin or addiction are overcome not through willpower or by control, but much more by recognizing that we are powerless to overcome them.
For example, we don’t become charitable by willpower, by saying to ourselves, “Be charitable!” Rather, we recognize the moments when we were totally uncharitable, and we weep over them. That doesn’t feel like power at all, does it? No one wants to go there.
Any talk of growth, achievement, climbing, improving, and progress highly appeals to the ego. But the only way we stay on the path with any authenticity is to constantly experience our incapacity to do it, our failure at doing it. That’s what makes us, to use my language, fall upward. Otherwise, we’re really not climbing; we’re just thinking we’re climbing by saying to ourselves, “Look, I’m better today. Look, I’m holier than I was last week. Look, my prayer is improving.” That really doesn’t teach us anything or lead us anywhere new.
In contrast, it is recognizing, “Richard, you don’t know how to love at all” that keeps me on the path of love. Constant failure at loving is ironically and paradoxically what keeps us learning how to love. When we think we’re there, there’s nothing to learn.
This is the genius of what Paul calls “the folly of the cross” (1 Corinthians 1:18), the folly of failure: that it doesn’t give us the satisfaction that our egos want. I don’t know if I am growing. I don’t know if I am “deepening my relationship with Jesus,” as Christians love to say. I hope I am, but any smug satisfaction in that is not going to do me or Jesus any good.
But every day, knowing that I have not yet begun to love Jesus? That constant experience of littleness is the Franciscan way.
It’s also the way of one of my other favorite saints, Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897). She called it her “Little Way.” She makes it very clear in small examples how it was failing to love every day that kept her on the path of love. She taught that remaining close to Jesus requires “bearing in peace the trial of not pleasing yourself.” [1] Who would have thought that? That is so counterintuitive! Yet what it reveals is that a lot of us Christians have sought—without knowing it—a certain self-satisfaction, a certain smugness. We think, “I’m a good Christian. I go to church on Sunday. I read the Bible. I love Jesus.”
And that’s why we still have racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism at the highest levels. Christianity has too often shown itself to be well-disguised narcissism. I congratulate Bill Wilson and Twelve-Step spirituality, because just like Thérèse of Lisieux, they named it. They said powerlessness is the beginning of the spiritual journey.
TEACH OUR CHILDREN...
These lyrics contain instructions for BOTH parents AND their children…I was initially tempted to delineate their voices…but I’m leaving that to you…
"Teach Your Children"
You, who are on the road Must have a code That you can live by And so become yourself Because the past is just a goodbye Teach your children well Their father's hell Did slowly go by And feed them on your dreams The one they pick's The one you'll know by Don't you ever ask them, "Why?" If they told you, you would cry So, just look at them and sigh And know they love you And you of tender years (Can you hear and do you care) Can't know the fears (And can you see) That your elders grew by (We must be free) And so please help (To teach your children) Them with your youth (What you believe in) They seek the truth (Make a world) Before they can die (That we can live in) Teach your parents well Their children's hell Will slowly go by And feed them on your dreams The one they pick's The one you'll know by Don't you ever ask them, "Why?" If they told you, you would cry So, just look at them and sigh And know they love you
Feed them on your dreams…
REIMAGINING A CREATION STORY...
One of my current perspectives on this tale…
In the beginning, G-d was ONE…but felt alONE…so, THEY (another change) thought…
...let’s place ourselves into matter so WE can experience MORE…So...the whole material world was in-breathed with spirit...
Note in this next graphic how the designer of this image left out Day 7. Probably, a “DOER” and didn’t want to intimate that G-d RESTED…The dude obviously doesn’t know that G-d is into the UNION business - as represented by the image of the TRINITY…and has
…a day off WITH pay…
Barbara H, John P and all present and former union members...I know you’ll enjoy this…
Secret recipe ingredients…
CIRCULARITY…
“Little bit FURTHER than you gone before…”
The Wheel
Lyrics By:
Music By:
The wheel is turning and you can't slow down You can't let go and you can't hold on You can't go back and you can't stand still If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will
Won't you try just a little bit harder Couldn't you try just a little bit more Won't you try just a little bit harder Couldn't you try just a little bit more
Round, round, Robin run around Gotta get back where you belong Little bit harder, just a little bit more Little bit further than you gone before
Small wheel turning by the fire and rod Big wheel turning by the grace of God Every time that wheel turn round Bound to cover just a little more ground
ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT...
For church goers, since this was posted on a Saturday night...singing this next tune will satisfy your Sunday obligation : )))
Note the visages on these rocking Saints...
Then God way up in heaven, for whatever it was worth Thought he'd have a big old party, thought he'd call it Planet Earth Don't worry about tomorrow, Lord, you'll know it when it comes When the rock and roll music meets the rising, shining sun Uh-huh, hey! Saturday night! One more Saturday night Hey, Saturday night! Uh-huh, hey! Saturday night! One more Saturday night Hey, Saturday night!
MORE RIPPLES...
FOR THOSE WHO ALSO FOLLOW RABBITS...OR LUCY...
A truly Surrealistic pillow...
Next tune is from the flip side of the album…
When hearing these first two lines…recall what we said at the beginning about noticing then leaving behind our rational mind’s insistence on a world of black or white ORDER…
When logic and proportion Have fallen sloppy dead And the White Knight is talking backwards And the Red Queen's off with her head Remember what the dormouse said Feed your head Feed your head
While in a recent rabbit hole, I just discovered this band...let me know what you think...BUT, not with your rational mind...
FURTHER...FURTHUR...FATHER...
Deserving a post of its own...the FURTHUR bus was part of Hippie History...
[from the description] Fifty years after the iconic first Trip, Ken Kesey’s son Zane took Furthur-and his father’s legacy-back on the road for its longest running tour in history. Armed with a new band of Merry Pranksters, the Furthur bus traveled over 15,000 miles in 75 days, riding into music festivals, community events, tribal gatherings and national landmarks. Get “On the Bus” as we experience first-hand the seeds sown by Ken and his crew, and how they’ve inspired a new generation. Through never-before-seen archive footage, as well as over 300 hours of film shot over the course of three months, Going Furthur will explore the roots of a culture birthed in the early sixties, and how the mission of those first few idealists have influenced the counterculture of today. Inspired by Furthur as a beacon of true American freedom, this will be an on-the-ground account of the massive potential we have in this generation to be the change we wish to see in the world.
HOW WE'RE SPENDING FATHER'S DAY...
...at the Rock & Roll Playhouse...
Celebrate Grateful Dad's/Father's Day "Course/Show" - 11 CEU's in Rock History - Port Washington, NY